A Doll's House: triumphant journey from Denmark to Calcutta

What could a 19th century Norwegian man have to say about the life of a married Bengali woman during the British Raj?

It turns out that playwright Henrik Ibsen's universal themes questioning the traditional roles of men and women provide the opportunity for examining not only gender politics but British colonialism too.

Modern day British-Asian playwright Tanika Gupta's adaptation of Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' is a triumph. Together with the Lyric Theatre's new Artistic Director, Rachel O'Riordan, they re-locate Ibsen's play from a 1879 Norwegian town to Calcutta in the same year, then the capital of the British India.

Ibsen's Nora (wife of Torvald, mother of three, living out the ideal of the 19th-century wife) becomes Niru, a chirpy, husband-pleasing young Bengali wife married to English bureaucrat Tom. The play sees the unravelling of their lives leading Niru to question her situation and her own identity.

The whole cast shines - with Niru played by the dazzling actor Anjana Vasan who has many theatre, television and film credits (from Brexit: The Uncivil War (Channel 4) to Black Mirror (Netflix) and Disney's Cinderella too) and the towering Elliot Cowan as Tom also has a long list of previews credits including the current top BBC hit Peaky Blinders.

The stunning single-scene new setting is the internal courtyard of an Indian town house, complete with tree sprouting up through it's centre. It gave the sense of Niru's claustrophobic and enveloping world, trapped in her own doll's house. It was beautifully lit with the various doors off the courtyard providing useful entry and exit points.

The award-winning multi-instrumentalist composer was Arun Ghosh, who himself hovered above the action on a mezzanine verandah surrounded by the instruments which he delicately played, creating a tense backdrop at apt moments in the psychodrama.

Gupta chose to stick mostly to Ibsen's original script, making only a few alterations for the adaption. It's seems astonishing that in 1879 Ibsen portrayed such scandalous-for-the-time feminist sentiments.

In 2006, the centenary of Ibsen's death, A Doll's House held the distinction of being the world's most performed play that year showing - perhaps sadly, and inevitably - the enduring nature of the play's themes.

The Lyric provide a very useful 'education pack' (pdf) about the play and its adaptation.

A Doll's House, a new adaptation by Tanika Gupta, at the Lyric Theatre, London W6 0QL.

Muse at O2 London

Lots of ear-throbbing fun watching Muse this month. The alt-rock trio from Devon are on a world tour following the release of their latest album, 'Simulation Theory' (2018). Dedicated 'Musers' at the sold out North Greenwich gig enjoyed every minute of the music and trademark excessive style of the band who have been going since the nineties.

Unashamed of seeking mega success – perhaps unlike some of their post-Brit pop contemporaries Radiohead (who reject it) and Coldplay (who affect a modesty about it) – Muse manage to sing about conspiracies, resistance and the second law of thermodynamics complete with balloon drops and ribbon showers.  My short film of some concert concert highlights can be seen here.

Read my review at Greenwich Visitor of Muse's 15 September 2019 gig:

Jealousy, separation and reunion - The Winter's Tale, Changeling Theatre, Woolwich

"On a glorious summer’s evening Changeling Theatre used a stunning outdoor setting in Woolwich  for a production of The Winter’s Tale, Shakespeare’s tale of jealously, grace, reunion and reconciliation.

The evocative bombed-out ruin of St George's Garrison Church and an introductory soundtrack of German electronica set the militaristic tone of the first half of the play as Leontes (Scott Ellis), the jealous king of Sicilia, accuses his loyal pregnant wife Hermione (Jess Nesling) of infidelity with his best friend Polixenes (Nicholas Masters-Waage), king of Bohemia. ..."

Read the rest of my review at The Greenwich Visitor of this 2 July 2019 performance:

A Winter’s Tale by the Changeling Theatre Company went on to be performed at various venues throughout the summer.

See my review of the 2018 outdoor staging of Hamlet at nearby Severndroog Castle in Oxleas Wood, London SE18.

Mr Cinders: Gender-role reversal fairytale comes to Eltham

You might think that a telling of the story of Cinderella with its gender roles reversed was a thoroughly modern invention. Not so.

 

The Sidcup Operatic Society's latest production, Mr Cinders, was first performed in the late 1920s and is said to reflect the dying gasps of the 'roaring twenties' before the Great Depression set in. There may be a connection too with the fact that the Representation of the People Act 1928 had just extended the voting franchise in  the UK  to all women over the age of 21, granting women the vote on the same terms as men for the first time.

Yet despite the influence of social change, the show is a fairytale comedy musical and aims to entertain. The story is an inversion of the Cinderella fairy tale with the gender roles reversed - the Prince Charming character has become a modern (1928) young and forceful woman, and Mr. Cinders is a menial.

See the story of Cinderella turned on its head set in the 1920s on 12-14 October at the Bob Hope Theatre, Eltham in south-east London at 7:30pm with Saturday matinee at 2:30pm. Tickets are £13.50 (£11.50 concessions Thurs/ Sat matinee) and are available by calling 020 8301 2681, the web via the Bob Hope Theatre or visiting the White Hart pub in Eltham. If you call the above number, kids can come to the matinee for just £5 and group discounts are available. 

While almost a hundred years later, housework is still overwhelmingly done by women, it will be interesting to see the role reversal re-imagined in those early years of female emancipation. The Sidcup Operatic Society claim to be the only society to perform this show in the entire country in 2017 so it’s an opportunity not to be missed.

The Play’s the Thing: Changeling Theatre’s Hamlet at Severndroog Castle

"...The play's the thing
Wherein I'll catch the conscience of the King."

(Act II, Scene 2)

A lot of things happened in 1997: Blair brought Labour back from the wilderness, the death of Princess Di unleashed mass hysteria, UK band Radiohead unveiled their iconic OK Computer album and …erm, I started working at Goldsmiths.

But something else happened too. A small Kentish theatre company put on its first ever production, Moliere’s Tartuffe, at Boughton Monchelsea Place, near Maidstone. Now, twenty years later, The Changeling Theatre have begun touring their latest outdoor-theatre production, that most challenging of Shakespeare’s plays, Hamlet, directed by Rob Forknall who has directed every Changeling show.

In last Wednesday's (19 July) evening open-air staging of Hamlet, Shakespeare’s longest and most quoted of plays, the backdrop of the towering Severndroog Castle, deep in South-East London’s Oxleas Wood, provided a fitting substitute for Elsinore, the Danish royal castle which quietly broods over the tragic play.

Setting the scene: Oxleas Wood, Severndroog Castle

The woodland setting’s intimacy immersed and enveloped audience members in the play’s action. Similarly, the evening breeze rustled the leaves of the surrounding ancient trees in eerily-timed accompaniment to the wandering Ghost of the late King Hamlet.

The story of the troubled prince struggling to deal with grief and revenge in the Danish court, the Changeling Theatre's production triumphantly succeeds in that most difficult of conundrums – just how do you solve a problem like staging a long philosophical tragedy, with few laughs, in a summer outdoor setting? The answer is… brilliantly.

The plot thickens, audience rapt. (Spot the 10th Royal Eltham Scout Explorers along the railings, who were volunteer helpers.)  [Photo courtesy of @GuyBenJonesSM, Company Stage Manager]

The production features an excellent cast, creative use of music and scene transitions, and a clever combination of period and modern costume. The modern world is also referenced in other witty anachronistic touches – e.g. two characters pausing for a photo ‘selfie’ on their way out of a scene; and the ‘mad’ Hamlet expressing his mock-demented state by gleefully sticking stickers on another character’s back, enlisting the help of a nearby cross-legged child audience member.

Another interesting interpretation was borrowing from cinematic visual techniques (only sparingly though - relax!) in which we had the characters on stage suddenly moving in dramatic slow-motion before casually coming back to ‘normal speed’ again.

The talented young Manchester School of Theatre-trained actor, Alex Phelps, convincingly carried off the famously dense rhetoric and discourse of Hamlet’s many soliloquies including the Bard’s most famous lines:

“To be or not to be – that is the question:

Where 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,”

(Act III, Scene 1)

However the audience, and Hamlet, were enjoyably teased when it came to another set of well-known lines. The supporting characters persisted in throwing around the skull, interrupting Hamlet several times from completing his lines:

“Let me see, Alas…”(*)

and then only later allowing him:

“…poor Yorick! I knew him Horatio. A fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy.”

(Act V, Scene 1)

(*sorry, I may have mis-remembered the exact break-point here…)

Despite the play’s serious content, the cast created a charmed and relaxed atmosphere with one of the characters even camply chivvying people back from the interval with, “Come on, come on, hurry up, it’s my big solo!”

And was it my modern feminist imagination or were there some ironic snorts and gasps at the lines?:

“Frailty, thy name is woman!

……

… a beast that wants discourse of reason

Would have mourn’d longer”

(Act I, Scene 2)

when Hamlet is berating his not-long-widowed mother for re-marrying so soon after her husband’s death. Hamlet’s mother Gertrude is played very engagingly by multi-talented LAMDA-trained Sarah Naughton (in action, photo below) who also excellently doubles-up later as a comic bawdy character.

The professional cast also contributed to the excellent ‘soundtrack’ to the production, arranged by Alex Scott, with many of them taking up various stringed instruments and a clarinet too.

It may well have been “madness”, sitting there in a darkened wood at 10pm on an English evening, “yet there is a method in’t” especially for such an engaging, witty and intelligent production.

(Act II, Scene 2)

This highly-recommended production continues at various venues around London and Kent ending in the grand setting of Pembroke Castle, Wales, on 30 August. Tickets obtainable from the Changeling Theatre website.

Cast

Hamlet - Alex Phelps

Gertrude - Sarah Naughton

Claudius/Ghost - Michael Palmer

Polonius/Gravedigger - Bryan Torfeh

Ophelia/Priest - Niamh Finlay

Horatio - Bryan Moriarty

Laertes/Player King - Tim Bowie

Rosencrantz/Bernardo - Brandon Plummer

Guildenstern/Francisco/Osric - Khalid Daley

Marcellus/Player Queen - Cary Ryan

Company

Director - Robert Forknall

Design - Clare Southern

Music - Alex Scott

Assistant Director - Charlotte Quinney

Casting Director - Suzy Catliff CDG

Company Stage Manager - Guy Benedict Jones

Assistant Stage Manager - Leonie Jai Hamilton

Administrator - Dawn Archer

Marketing Director - Jill Hogan

Graphic Design- Dan Bull

Photography - Nic Dawkes

Video - Lukasz Jasiukowicz

Movement - Jessica Rose Boyd

Fight Director - Edward Linard

Eltham Lights Up 2016 and celebrates Roald Dahl this time

Willy Wonka and his Oompa Loompas come to Eltham!

Central London may have had its switching on of the Christmas lights last Thursday but for many families and residents in a certain south-east London suburb, the annual Eltham Lights Up event was the place to be.

Organised by Royal Greenwich Borough, this much loved Lantern Parade in Eltham High Street and the switching on of its own Christmas lights is well attended by locals. In the weeks leading up to it, local primary school children make illuminated lanterns which are proudly paraded behind their school banner. The event was also part of the Eltham Arts Winter Festival 2016 which ran from 29 October to 20 November and showcased over 150 arts events in Eltham this year. In fact, Eltham Arts's own Festival Finale takes place today, 20 Nov, at the White Hart.

This year's Lights Up theme was Roald Dahl on the occasion of what would have been his 100th birthday. Emergency Exit Arts, an arts organisation based in nearby Greenwich, which specialises in using visual performance, processions, puppetry and pyrotechnics, brought alive characters from Dahl's enduring children's books. They joined lots of gleeful lantern-toting children (and parents!) to celebrate this annual festive occasion now in its 17th year.

Here's my short film of this year's Eltham Lights Up thrown together from my footage:

I remember first attending this event when our two children were pre-school aged and were beside themselves with excitement waving glow sticks, watching the colourful parade and then the finale fireworks from the top of the M&S building. In subsequent years they've paraded with the Gordon Primary School, arriving early to assemble in what was then the playground of the nearby Church of England School in Roper Street, now the subject of scaffolding and the erection of a new building on this historic site just behind the High Street.

Now young teens, our children are naturally more concerned to 'hang out' with their friends wandering around trying to buy the best hot chocolate, leaving me to enjoy the parade from a different perspective.

Despite concerns about the effect on this event of the current improvements being made to Eltham High Street, the Council rushed to have it ready to host the Lights Up event and luckily succeeded. However, after some previous cases of hot falling debris, the fireworks have for the last couple of years been replaced by other finales, this year some fiery shooting musical flames. There was also musical entertainment laid on across three stages - on Passey Place, next to St Mary's and in the Eltham Leisure Centre - this years' acts included the Pytchwood folk duo, the band Little Beach, the teen boy band Decks and Quatrz, the Eltham hill School Choir and the Rock Choir. Welcome though this was, it made it difficult to get round and see them all!

People persevered through the early heavy rain and were rewarded with dry, crisp weather in time for the switching on and the parade itself. And so another Eltham Lights Up comes to an end marking the start of Christmas.

Other local lighting up events include:

Woolwich Winter Warmer
Saturday 26 November, 1pm to 5.30pm - General Gordon Square and Powis Street, SE18

Greenwich Christmas Festival
Saturday 3 December 12pm to 6pm - Cutty Sark Gardens, SE1

My posts on previous Eltham Lights Up events:
Eltham Lights Up 2012
Eltham Lights Up 2011
Eltham Lights Up 2010
Eltham Lights Up 2009

Arts Festival brings Opera to Eltham!

Eltham Park Baptist Church, Glenure Road, Eltham SE9 1JE

Saturday November 12th 2016, 7.30pm

In aid of Eltham Arts

Katy Batho ~ soprano

Elizabeth Key ~ mezzo soprano

Andrew Macnair ~ tenor

John Bernays ~ baritone

Michael Robinson ~ piano 

“A glamorous evening of entertainment to include well known opera arias and ensembles you know and love.”

 Tickets:  £12 (plus booking fee).  Email info@elthamarts.org

£15 at the door. Book Early

____________________________________

This fabulous event has been confirmed as part of the Eltham Arts Winter Festival 2016, running this year from Saturday 29 October to 20 November.  It's a real coup to bring this to Eltham's doorstep.

You can read more about Eltham resident Elizabeth Key (above), the mezzo soprano for this event, in an article in September's Greenwich Visitor, by Gaynor Wingham. Whether you love opera to bits, or are just a bit curious about the whole thing (that's me...), don't miss out - you'll need to book your tickets fast.

We had a blast at the first ever Eltham Arts Winter Festival last year (31 Oct - 22 Nov 2015). You can catch up with that on the Eltham Arts Facebook, website and watch videos of the 2015 festival on the Eltham Arts YouTube channel (very amateur film-making is turning into something of a hobby of mine!)

The 2016 Festival has even more arts events, this time over 150, taking place all over the SE9 area. From exhibitions, theatre, live music, heritage walks and talks, a packed programme brings together the creative talent of local people and groups in the 23-day artsfest.

Eltham Arts, led by its indefatigable Chair, Gaynor Wingham, has coordinated the events with community partners, supported by committee members, to bring this creative smorgasbord to the south-east of London.

So what's happening where? A special pull-out programme will be in the October issue of The Greenwich Visitor (free!) at the beginning of the month and I'm happy to be contributing to some of event articles which will also be in the supplement. A leaflet is already hitting the streets and display boards of Eltham - that gives a taster of what's to come. Get in touch via the Eltham Arts Facebook, website or twitter (hashtag: #ElthamWinFest2016).

It's time for ParksFest 2016 in Eltham

Parksfest 2016 has been announced - it's a now-annual Royal Greenwich Borough-wide programme of free cultural entertainment in the Borough's parks and open spaces. It's been running for many years and includes Eltham's many open spaces and parks during the coming June and July - here's a selection of what Eltham is putting on show this summer:

They'll be lots of familiar talent on show from in and around Eltham, as well as food stalls and also entertainment for the children.

The ParksFest programme is co-ordinated by the Greenwich Parks Forum, a network of twenty four Friends of Parks groups.  The full calendar of all the ParksFest events this summer:

Find out more at the ParksFest 2016 site

New Eltham's Fiddler on the Roof

Musical theatre is not normally my thing. The final straw came a couple of decades ago when I had to walk out of Lloyd Webber’s never-ending show, Time, at the interval – I couldn't stand it anymore.

All that suspension of disbelief, all those excruciating looks on their faces as they emoted around tenuous plots – no. No more. I was done.

It may be surprising to hear this from a Brit-Asian bought up on a diet of Bollywood's musical films. In these films it was an unremarkable and frequent happening for 30, or more, backing singers and dancers to suddenly pop up and accompany the hero and heroine as they burst into song in some verdant scene.

Admittedly, the more excessive fantasy sequences went out with the 80s and 90s (I’m thinking demure Indian woman, with improbably blonde wig, with oversize silver puffball sleeves, swinging on a huge low-slung crescent moon amidst a smoke machine on full power…you get the picture). No, these days one is able to enjoy more ‘realism’ in Bollywood cinema, though it’s all relative of course. I mean, the highly-westernised, elite wealthy, light-skinned lives portrayed in many of today’s Indian blockbusters are a million miles away from the lives of ordinary Indians.

I was amazed then to find myself transfixed by last night’s production of Fiddler On The Roof by New Eltham Community Productions (NECP), a performing arts groups based at the New Eltham Methodist Church in the south-East of London. What had initially been a well-meaning booking to support some local artistic activity has now turned out to be a revelation.

From the Programme

The stunning quality of all the creative talent on show belied the fact that this was an amateur production. The spot-on choreography, the surprise live orchestral music, the period costumes, the track lighting and, of course, the acting, would not be out of place at a central London venue at a ticket four times the price. Instead, we were sitting in a small church community centre in a sleepy suburb (or ‘New Eltham Village’ if you please…)

‘Fiddler’ is of course a well-established musical play and film, a staple for amateur companies – the story of a life in Anatevka, pre-revolutionary Russian Jewish village, focussing on Tevye’, a dairyman and the ‘Papa’ trying to bring his daughters up according to the long-held traditions of the community. Modernity and love get in the way, as ever. The setting may seem obscure but its universal themes, and stonking tunes, have proved highly-appealing. Come to think of it, this IS every Bollywood film!

This NECP production is skilfully directed and choreographed by Hannah Bond.  The large cast challenged with many musical numbers and dances were brilliantly handled. The catchy opening whole-cast number ‘Tradition’ set the tone and was a refrain throughout. Later “If I was a Rich Man” was subtly done without giving into to hamming it up. The key lead Jewish father, Tevye is played brilliantly by Neil Stevens who, by all accounts, grew a beard especially for this part along with other male cast members. He struck just the right note with his combination of serious and comedic acting (“On the one hand…, on the other hand…, on the other hand, there is no hand”). For me, a large part of this production’s success was Neil Stevens’ ability to hold the audience for his solo pieces and to take us so convincingly with him on his journey. The acting was matched by his stage wife, Golde, played magnificently by Rachel King, with both of them excellent singers too.

A real and unexpected treat was the live orchestra and the entrancing 'fiddler' who started off playing in a small balcony above the stage and then descended later to interact with Tevye as he muses on life.

There was poignancy, comedy and romance in the portrayal of this little village but also the intrusion of the darker outside world. We see this Jewish community in Russia subjected to a progrom by anti-Semitic Czarist forces forcing our characters to flee and scatter, many setting off to emigrate to America as refugees, a sadly familiar scenario still with us though with different collection of communities, faiths and countries.

In short, I’d thoroughly recommend this production though it finishes its run tonight! However, I’m so glad to add the discovery of this gem to our list of local Eltham and SE London venues. We shall be looking out for the next NECP production.

See local professional photographer Robert Piwko's fabulous photographs of this production here.

"Warm Welcome to Winter in Eltham" - Eltham Arts Winter Festival nearly here!

One of the biggest arts and cultural events to hit Eltham starts next Saturday.

The Eltham Arts Winter Festival takes place from 31 October to 22 November at venues all over the SE9 area. This unique three-week community festival also includes an Art Trail of fabulous art which can be seen in and around Eltham High Street and surrounding areas.

Poetry, theatre, music, exhibitions, talks, quizzes and yes, a beer festival (!), can all be found during the Festival in SE9's cafes, shop windows, galleries, community centres, theatres and historic buildings. It all kicks off with a Halloween-flavoured opening event on Saturday 31 October at Eltham's Passey Place from 11am to 3pm.

I'm very excited to have been involved in this entirely voluntary initiative organised by Eltham Arts, a community organisation established in 2013 to promote the arts and led by its energetic Chair, Gaynor Wingham. So many people have contributed, from local artists of all sorts, local venues, local businesses and many other Eltham Arts supporters. We were delighted to have the tremendous support of the widely-read Greenwich Visitor local newspaper which has published the full Festival programme in its October issue with an introductory article by me.

You can download the full Festival programme at the Eltham Arts website, including details of the Art Trail, or pick up a copy of Greenwich Visitor at various venues (including the Eltham Sainsbury's).  Do also check out Eltham Arts on Twitter for updates, news and any changes.

In the meantime, here's an at-a-glance run down of the events which you can enlarge:

Eltham Arts

Are you interested in the arts in Eltham?

Well, I've been very remiss in not writing much earlier about about an exciting new organisation in Eltham. Eltham Arts is a new initiative started over a year ago, by the enterprising and enthusiastic Gaynor Wingham, encouraged by the Eltham Town Centre Partnership and now supported by others, including Amy Duffin, SEnine reporter and @NewElthamWoman on Twitter. 

Eltham Arts aims to celebrate and encourage Eltham's creativity and talent, for people of all ages and backgrounds. Its activities got off to a strong start with a poetry competition last year, 'Eltham in Verse' with a splendid book published as a result. I bought my copy when I bumped into Gaynor at the library in Eltham....

And now Eltham Arts are running a short story competition, 'Tales of Eltham', with entries to be in by 21 February 2014.

There'll be a celebratory event on 23 April 2014 when the winners of the short story competition will be announced at the World book Night celebrations, to be held at the Eltham Centre. There are plans for a book too containing some of the short stories. So why not have a go? See here for more details.

Eltham Arts have a rich vein of arts to mine, and to develop further - in Eltham we already have the Bob Hope Theatre, the Priory Players, the Eltham Choral Society, the Greenwich Soul Choir and Edith Nesbitt's writing heritage and much more. 

In fact, there's so much going on that Gaynor Wingham from Eltham Arts is now writing a column in Greenwich Visitor, a monthly local newspaper - see its website www.TheGreenwichVisitor.com

There's lots more planned, including a series of talks,' Eltham Entertains' at the Eltham Leisure Centre (2 Archery Rd, Eltham SE9 1HA), with the first of these taking place on 12 February, 7-9pm.

So, a belated and warm welcome to Eltham Arts!

ParksFest 2013 events around Eltham

 

 

 

For more information about these venues and about many other ParksFest events around the borough - see the ParksFest 2013 website.

Eltham's Young Voices at the O2

Thousands of primary school children sang their hearts out again at the O2 on 28 January. My daughter is one of the kids in this photo (blue section!) attending as part of her school choir. YouTube clip here of their fantastic pop medley. It's part of the Young Voices series of concerts.

More detailed write up of last year's performance here when a world record was broken for the largest backing choir in the world!

Another Day Out at London South Bank

Some photos of a lovely day spent on London's South Bank last week:

The children enjoyed the new playground in the redeveloped Jubilee Gardens, in the shadows of the London Eye and the old County Hall building. The swings and trim trail are gone, replaced mostly with wooden climby things.

The once-completely lawned Jubilee gardens is now cut by a windy path with planted beds which look very nice. I can't help feeling nostalgic walking here as it always takes me back to the late-eighties when I worked at the then GLC/ILEA-controlled County Hall and would spend lunchtimes on the lawn (when not in the RFH bar or in the Archduke wine bar, the new kid on the block then, nice to see it still there under the arches).

 

Sadly there was no 'shower room' installation like last year for the kids to enjoy playing in the water. Instead the same spot, on the upper terrace of the RFH, is occupied by a project to build the world in a million Lego pieces. The kids got issued their boards and followed the printed grid - my two got blocks of blue which were obviously going to end up being part of a sea or ocean. We were pleased that when completed they were guided by the organisers to place their boards as part of the Indian Ocean.

   

Later on after lunch the children spent ages (and ages!) at the 'Rainbow Park' a long strip of multi-coloured sand along the railings in between the Royal Festival Hall and National Theatre:

Having finished reading my New Statesman I watched some of the skateboarders and BMXers doing their thing under the Queen Elizabeth Hall. It was here that I spotted some fresh and very topical graffiti art going up, capturing the mood perfectly of passers by - Jess Ennis and Mo Farrah in stencilled spray paint:

It was hard work dragging the children away from the Rainbow Park for a quick look at the free South African dance performance happening in the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hall lobby. But it was worth it. The performance by 'Dance Africa Dance' and small exhibition were part of 'Ekhaya', a cultural base which the South Africans had set up for during the Olympics:

It was here that we were surprised and a bit bemused to find ourselves part of the enthusiastic audience to a surprise visit by a South African dignitary (?the Deputy High Commissioner?), closely followed by the gold-medal winning South African Olympic team! This included their well-known medal-winning swimmer Chad Le Clos, on the right:

Well, it was the closest I've probably been to so many medal-winners! After listening to some of the interviews and politely clapping their Olympic team, we beat a retreat. 

We pootled around enjoying the mime artists, ice-creams, and the carousel. My husband joined us and we decided to take a boat back to Greenwich. Shame that the RFH pier closes at 5.30pm, so we had to cross over the Thames to the embankment pier. During the boat trip I managed to capture the huge riverside royal portrait I'd read so much about:

And of course the Olympic rings under Tower Bridge:

 

Click here for my blog post on last year's visit to the South Bank.